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How adult tissue stem and niche cells respond to the nutritional

How adult tissue stem and niche cells respond to the nutritional state of an organism is not well understood. 1b) with villi that were 15% shorter and possessed fewer enterocytes (Supplementary Fig. 1e, f). CR did not affect the frequency of chromogranin A+ enteroendocrine cells, but mildly reduced that of alcian blue+ secretory goblet cells (Supplementary Fig 2a, Elvitegravir b). To address how CR influenced the frequency of ISCs, we performed for Olfactomedin-4 (Olfm4), a recently described marker that is co-expressed by Lgr5+ ISCs21. CR led to a 35% increase in Olfm4+ primitive intestinal progenitors compared to those in AL mice (Fig. 1a, Supplementary Fig. 6a). Interestingly, CR also caused a commensurate increase in Cryptdin4+ Paneth cells (Fig. 1a), which we confirmed by morphological examination of one-micron tissue sections (Supplementary Fig. 4a) and by electron microscopy (Supplementary Fig. 4b). These findings lead to two intriguing conclusions: First, CR promotes the preservation and self-renewal of ISCs (increased Olfm4+ ISCs) at the expense of differentiation (shorter villi with fewer mature enterocytes). Second, ISCs BCL2L and their Paneth cells increase in tandem, raising Elvitegravir the possibility that the Paneth cell niche may coordinate ISC adaptation to CR. Figure 1 Calorie restriction augments the capacity of Paneth cells to boost ISC function The fact that CR augmented ISC numbers while reducing the total number of differentiated Elvitegravir enterocytes suggested that CR enhances the proliferation of ISCs while reducing the proliferation of more differentiated progenitors (TA-cells). To test this possibility, we assessed incorporation of BrdU into ISCs and TA-cells. After a 4 hour pulse of BrdU, CR-crypts had nearly 2-fold as many BrdU+ ISCs compared to AL-crypts (4.30.3 vs 2.40.2, Fig. 1b; Supplementary Fig. 1g, h). However, CR decreased the number of BrdU+ cells in the larger pool of TA-cells (11.00.9 vs 9.40.5; Fig. 1b), suggesting that output and migration into the villi from this compartment may also be reduced. Indeed, CR mice 24 hours after a single dose of BrdU had fewer absolute numbers of BrdU labeled cells in the villi compared to AL controls (14.51.5 vs 19.01.7, Supplementary Fig. 1i, j). However, there was no significant difference in the percentage of BrdU+ villous enterocytes, indicating that in CR mice TA-cells generate fewer progeny for shorter, less cellular villi (Supplementary Fig. 1k). These data demonstrate that CR alters the coupling between stem cell and TA-cell proliferation and data showing that CR increases the numbers and regenerative capacity of ISCs. CR enhances ISC function via the niche To understand how CR affects the frequency and function of ISCs and their Paneth cell niche, we performed CR experiments on knock-in mice, which allow isolation by flow cytometry of Lgr5-EGFPhi ISCs and their daughter, more differentiated EGFPlow cells16. Compared to AL controls, CR increased the frequency of Lgr5-EGFPhi ISCs (5.62.1% vs 4.31.9%, Fig. 1f) and Paneth cells (9.83.3% vs 6.73.3%, Fig. 1f, Supplementary Fig. 8, 9) by 1.5-fold. The frequency of the much larger pool of EGFPlow differentiated progenitors, however, was lower in CR (8.13.0% vs 10.14.3% Fig. 1f). These data corroborate the phenotypic expansion of ISCs and Paneth cells detected with the Olfm4 and Cryptdin4 markers, respectively (Fig.1a, Supplementary Fig. 6a, b), and suggest that while CR expands the pool of ISCs it leads to a reduction of more differentiated progenitors. Thus, CR has opposing effects on the numbers of stem cells and their immediate progeny, shifting the equilibrium towards stem cell self-renewal. The enhanced regenerative activity of CR-crypts led us to ask whether ISCs respond to CR autonomously or non-autonomously through the Paneth cells. To test this, we combined ISCs and Paneth cells isolated from CR and AL mice and assayed their ability to form organoid bodies in culture (Fig. 1g). Elvitegravir Consistent with prior studies14,22, neither.